The Latest Local News

It’s the calm before the storm. Tomorrow is Election Day for the primaries. That being said, better than 15-percent of Highlands County voters already have cast their ballots. Highlands County Supervisor of Elections Karen Healy says she has recieved some 7,232 votes by mail, with another 3,457 people coming to the polls for early voting. Continue reading

Quite the thunderstorm we had last night about dinner hour. All the louder because it was right over our heads. Public reports have at least two homes in Sebring hit by lightning when the thunderstorm cell passed through a little after 5pm. Early Voting for next Tuesday’s primary election continues through Saturday for Highlands County Continue reading

The wheels of justice are starting to move for the accused January 2019 Sun Trust bank shooter. Circuit Judge Peter Estrada Monday set a target of early next year to begin the trial of Zephen Xaver with a January date possible, pending clearance by the Chief Judge for the Circuit. Estrada gave attorney a date Continue reading

Little traffic tieup on Highway 98 near Spring Lake yesterday morning. An overturned semi trailer dumped about 5,000 gallons of liquid fertilizer on the road after a head-on collision with an SUV driven by a 75 year old Sebring man at the intersection with Lakeview Boulevard. The highway was closed about four hours while Hazmat Continue reading

If you’ve missed using Heron Street as a north-south route down Sebring’s west side for most of this year, relief is on the way – the County’s Road and Bridge Department says the rebuilding project that’s had the road closed since spring will be finished ahead of schedule – this week. Finishing up the striping Continue reading

When it comes to retiring, it appears that Highlands County gets pretty high marks. A new report put Highlands third in a list of the Top-25 places in Florida to spend the golden years. The firm Stacker compiled a list of the best counties to retire in Florida using data from Niche. Niche ranks counties Continue reading

Early voting started yesterday here in Highlands County, and although thousands of mail-ins already have been received at the supervisor of elections office, only a few hundred showed up yesterday to cast their ballots in person. To be exact, 301 people showed up at the three locations open in Avon Park, Lake Placid and Sebring. Continue reading

Today begins early voting in Highlands County. Polls open at 8:30 this morning and will run until 4:30 this afternoon for the next 10 days. In Avon Park voters in the City of Charm can go to the council chambers behind city hall. Those in the Caladium Capital can cast their ballots at the Lake Continue reading

It was back to the classroom today for youngsters in the Highlands County School system. School officials say they are expecting the rolls to increase a couple hundred students over last year, but it will take a while before they can get an official count. Motorists are reminded to watch out for youngsters walking or Continue reading

One man is dead and another arrested after an early morning shooting incident yesterday in Sebring. Police in the City on the Circle say the incident happened shortly after midnight at the Park Crest Apartment complex. The victim was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. Acting on information from witnesses, Highlands County Continue reading